Joe Savage has urged the Bay of Plenty public not to give up on his embattled Steamers team, despite another woeful pre-season outing.

The Steamers were cast aside 35-7 by Hawke's Bay at the Tauranga Domain yesterday, in their last hit-out before the Air New Zealand Cup begins next week.

It was meant to be a big day for Savage, who captained the team in a first-class match for the first time and collected his 15-game blazer while he was at it.

But the look of abject frustration he wore after the game was shared by his teammates, coaches and the bewildered majority of a large Friday afternoon crowd.

"I can't explain what we're missing - we've got the same players as last year and maybe a bit more depth but we haven't captured that Bay pride yet," Savage said.

"We can fix it in a week and the boys can get up for a proper Air New Zealand Cup game - but so will the other team. We need to really work hard this week and not go in half-hearted about it."

Hawke's Bay are a very good team and the visitors showed their class after just two minutes when wing Zac Guildford scooted across.

But they hardly got out of second gear, almost casually adding three more tries and a penalty before halftime to lead 25-0.

Bay of Plenty's last first-class game on Tauranga Domain was in 2002 when a star-studded Wellington tore them a new orifice in winning 74-20.

That scoreline looked ominously achievable until a welcome deluge of torrential rain minutes into the second spell.

Yet still the Steamers attack looked flat and uninspired. There's no doubt the players were trying but the fluency, flair and tenacity had left the building long before and was halfway to Ruatoki.

It took 77mins before Colin Bourke detached from the back of a 5m scrum and powered over to ironic applause from the crowd, who quite frankly deserved far more than that.

They also deserved more than the constant infringing which saw first Steamers flanker Luke Braid, then Magpies lock Ross Kennedy sinbinned late in the game.

Coach Greg Smith's task in the next week is to somehow unite his fractious ranks, while the senior players must also take some responsibility.

"The leadership group has been trying to organise some team-building things but we've just been training so hard with long days, it's fallen by the wayside," Savage admitted. "That's gotta change because the way we're playing is very frustrating. It takes a bit of time and we need some confidence and a few wins."

If his teammates could take an ounce of their skipper's pride into next week's opener against Northland in Rotorua, they'd be doing well.

"I'm still proud of wearing the jersey and I'm really proud to earn a blazer. I never thought I'd captain the Steamers and there's been so much history in this union ... I can't get over it. It would just be nice to be in a team playing decent rugby."

Score: Hawke's Bay 35 (Zac Guildford, Karl Lowe, Jason Shoemark, Nic Thompson, Michael Johnson tries; Matt Berquist 2pen 2con) Bay of Plenty 7 (Colin Bourke try; Nick McCashin con). HT: 25-0.